


My Girl

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic [33]
Category: The Trixie Belden Mysteries - Julie Campbell Tatham & Kathryn Kenny
Genre: Childhood Friends, Estrangement, F/M, Prompt Fill, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:12:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>LJ Comment Fic for Pre-or-Post prompt: <i>any book. any & any. Meeting again after a long time.</i></p><p>In which Trixie comes home after a personal loss, and Jim wants to be friends again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Girl

Running a school for disadvantaged youth had always been Jim’s dream, and he’d worked hard to achieve it: carefully invested his inheritance money, double-majored in business and education in college, and developed contacts early on that he could count on for help, for staffing, for advice.

He thought he’d been prepared. He wasn’t. Jim had to be more than an administrator and teacher. He had to be a counselor, a gardener, a plumber, a public relations liaison. He had to talk to angry parents and exhausted case workers, and sometimes even the police. He had to deal with employee concerns, student discipline, and a group of local parents who didn’t want the Frayne School in their town, bringing in an undesirable element.

It was a 24/7 kind of job, and sometimes Jim wished he could take an extended vacation to get away from it all. But for the most part he was proud of the school, and proud of the boys that turned their lives around while they were there. They weren’t all success stories, but that just made the ones that were even sweeter.

Jim was as happy as he figured he could be. Until he saw the taxi go by while he was touching up the paint on the sign out front. He watched it turn in at Crabapple Farm, saw the woman who climbed out and retrieved a small, rolling suitcase from the trunk. And his breath caught in his throat.

Trixie had come home.

There were few regrets in Jim’s life. He wished he’d known his uncle before he passed away. He wished he’d left his abusive stepfather sooner. But most especially he wished that he hadn’t ended things so badly with Trixie. He’d been hurt, and afraid for her, and instead of supporting her he’d chased her away.

The taxi backed out of the Belden’s driveway and drove off the way it came, but Trixie just kept standing there. Then she turned, shading her eyes, and seemed to look directly at Jim. His hand clenched on the paint brush when she left the suitcase in the driveway and started walking in his direction.

“Your hair is still a beacon,” she said when she got close enough. 

Jim fought the urge to reach up and touch his head. The flaming red hadn’t dimmed at all with the passage of years, and he’d gotten his fair share of ribbing about it.

“You’re still beautiful,” he heard himself say with a kind of detached horror.

Trixie blushed. She was wearing her hair longer these days, sandy curls cascading down to her shoulders, but she looked just the same. The freckles and snub nose gave her a more youthful appearance. Despite that, she looked tired. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she was too thin. The bubbly energy that she’d barely been able to keep contained when they were kids was nowhere to be seen.

“School looks good.”

“Thanks.” Jim didn’t realize he was nervously tapping the paint brush against his leg until Trixie huffed out a laugh. There was blue paint all over his jeans. “Uh…how long are you in town for?”

Trixie shrugged. “I don’t know. Things are…I don’t think I’ll be going back to Chicago. You were right.”

“No. I wasn’t. I was an ass, Trixie, and I never got the chance to apologize for that.” Jim tossed the paint brush aside and, since his jeans were ruined anyway, he wiped his hand on them.

He knew a little about what had happened. Mart, Trixie’s brother, was one of his teachers and had been one of his best friends since they were kids. Mart was normally a chatterbox, but about his sister he could be very tight-lipped. All Jim knew for sure was that Trixie’s partner at the investigative firm had died while they were working on a case.

“It doesn’t matter,” Trixie said. She sounded defeated, and Jim wanted to kick himself for any part he’d played in that.

He could still remember their last fight, every word burned into his memory. He’d told her that she wasn’t good enough, that it would be better to find a new dream. As if Trixie had ever wanted to be anything but a private investigator. But Jim had been scared, not the least because she’d be moving so far away, and none of her friends would be there to watch her back the way they had when she got into scrapes in high school.

It wasn’t Trixie who hadn’t been good enough, or strong enough. Jim had wanted to keep her close, keep her safe. Instead she’d walked out of his life. 

“Look,” Jim said. He reached out, and when Trixie didn’t move away he took her hand in his. “I know it’s been a long time, and I totally don’t deserve it. But maybe we could get together sometime? Just to talk.”

Trixie’s eyes gleamed with unshed tears, and she gave Jim’s hand a squeeze. “I’d like that.”

There was movement down the street, and Jim could see Mart watching them from the yard.

“You better go.”

“Yeah.” Trixie brushed a hand over her eyes. “Give me a call, okay?”

“You bet I will.” Jim let her go, watched her walk back to her childhood home. He waved at Mart, who waved back before he escorted Trixie inside.

She was his girl, once. Maybe, if it wasn’t too late for them, she could be again.


End file.
